GROUP MEMBERS:

Troy Crutcher
Robert Eiford
Dustin Nelson
Robert Kara
Ariel Shriver

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

With a goal of providing a new innovative, alternative study environment for college students within our community, we looked for viable alternatives to on campus study locations. “Study-Rama” will help stimulate a more productive learning atmosphere and contribute to educational goals of the university. To help us accomplish this we teamed up with Haggen.

In 1933, Ben and Dorothy Haggen opened their first Haggen store in Bellingham, Washington. Haggen became the first store in the Northwest to offer a self-service meat counter (1941), an in-store scratch bakery (1955), and an in-store Starbucks Coffee shop (1989). Haggen currently has 15 food and drug stores, located throughout Washington and Oregon. They currently employ more than 4,000 people and are headquartered in Barkley Square, in Bellingham. In addition to the 15 Haggen stores they also own Top Food and Drug.

Our initial proposal to Haggen was to create a food recycling program. Perishable food waste would be consolidated and distributed to RDS. We quickly learned that our initial project had already been tested in Burlington and due to negative cost effectiveness it was terminated. Haggen proposed the idea of our current project, and it was quickly adopted with the consensus of our group. We were to create a study environment that students would be attracted to. To help us accomplish this we surveyed 50 students to ascertain accommodations that would help cultivate beneficial study aptitudes. Through discussions with our corporate partners we could decide on which ideas and venders would be feasible and could be implemented and offered in our flyers. Flyers were then dispersed on campus through department heads, bulletin boards and selected department e-mail announcements. Off campus flyers where posted on bulletin boards, Facebook, MySpace, and bag stuffers. “Study-Rama” kicks off December 11th and 12th from 9pm-1am at Sehome Haggen Market Street Café.

“Study Rama” incorporates most of the ethical frameworks that we have learned in class. Utilitarianism, Deontology, Justice, Ethic of Care, Libertarianism, and Virtue Theory are all relevant to our social change project. The project utilizes three forms of justice: distributive, procedural, and compensatory.

We created a cost-benefit analysis to discover if “Study-Rama” will be worthwhile. The costs associated with this project include materials, labor, and opportunity costs. The benefits come in the form of future customer base, study environment, and community advancement. We are assuming the net present value of this project will be positive because of past, similar projects, through Haggens.

In conclusion, we are confident that “Study-Rama” will be a huge success because students seem very interested in the event. Depending on the degree of success Haggen may continue this event in future quarters.